Champions League: Benfica vs. Napoli: Probable line-ups and where to watch on TV – Football Italia

NAPLES, ITALY – OCTOBER 01: Rasmus Hojlund of SSC Napoli celebrates after scoring his side first goal during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD2 match between SSC Napoli and Sporting Clube de Portugal at Stadio Diego Armando Maradona on October 01, 2025 in Naples, Italy. (Photo by Francesco Pecoraro/Getty Images)

Midfield injuries have not cleared up for Antonio Conte, who may have to name the same Napoli starting XI for the second time in four days for Wednesday night’s Champions League clash against Jose Mourinho’s Benfica. 

The Partenopei were able to pull out an impressive 2-1 victory against Juventus in Serie A over the weekend, despite injuries to four key midfielders in Kevin De Bruyne, Stanislav Lobotka, Frank Anguissa and Billy Gilmour. 

Eljif Elmas was called in to play in central midfield in Lobotka’s absence over the weekend, and is expected to start alongside Scott McTominay again in Lisbon this evening. 

Rasmus Hojlund has four goal involvements in his three league matches since the November international break, including a brace against Juve, and is also expected to go again at centre-forward against Benfica with Romelu Lukaku yet to return from his thigh injury. Lorenzo Lucca is likely to start amongst the substitutes. 

Sky Sport Italia predicts that Conte will name an unchanged starting XI against Benfica, which would mean consecutive starts for Sam Beukema, Amir Rrahmani and Alessandro Buongiorno in the back three, Giovanni Di Lorenzo and Mathias Olivera at wing-back and David Neres and Noa Lang on the wings. 

Kick-off is due at 20.00 GMT (21.00 CET).

Benfica vs. Napoli: Probable line-ups 

Napoli (3-4-3): Milinkovic-Savic; Beukema, Rrahmani, Buongiorno; Di Lorenzo, Elmas, McTominay, Olivera; Neres, Hojlund, Lang. 

Benfica (4-2-3-1): Trubin; Dedic, Silva, Otamendi, Dahl; Barrenechea, Rios; Aursnes, Barreiro, Sudakov; Pavlidis.

Where to watch Benfica vs. Napoli

Tonight’s game will be available to watch live in the UK on TNT Sports 6 and online through Discovery+. Supporters in the USA are able to tune in via Paramount+. 

Join us for all the pre-match build-up, in-game coverage and post-match reactions on the Football Italia Liveblog.